All the China in China

antique china Wesley Finnerty, who owns the Antique Exchange with husband Tom, says she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t obsessed with china. The obsession runs in the family. Wesley’s seven-times great-grandfather John Donnell was a shipper who traveled to China in the late 1700s and early 1800s to retrieve the handsome export made for the English market.

Some of these exquisite pieces now live on display in Wesley’s den of the lovely Stevenson estate her great-uncle built. Wesley grew up here. Now she and Tom are raising their four children in the memory-filled home.

“It’s always been called the Donnell china and Latimer china. They are family names,” Wesley says of her inherited collections.

Latimer comes from a family home called Latemeria in Wilmington, Delaware—parts of the estate’s garden house and other elements are on exhibit at Winterthur. John Donnell owned Willow Brook, the dining room or oval room now housed at the BMA.
The Donnell pieces bear a family shield, while the Latimer boasts a coat of arms. Wesley attaches sentimental value to the collections, but also appreciates their superb craftsmanship. Such well-crafted export pieces are tough to come by for antique hunters these days.

“The export has changed,” she explains. “It’s more commonplace.”

Wesley stocks many rooms with china themes she has carefully put together over time.
“In my dining room, I have a different look: crazy china against orange walls. I have English Coalport, which is cobalt blue, with hand-painted flowers,” she says.

China by Spode and Derby also decorates the room, all of it blue and happily flowered.
“I’m done,” Wesley says of this look. “I can’t fit any more!”

She does fit china into other important spaces around the house.

“In my living room I have a set of Spode finger patterns,” she says. “In the kitchen, it’s Canton, an export they started mass producing. This you can find easily.”

Wesley’s country-theme guestroom features creamware china, named for its rich glaze, a couple of Staffordshire figures, and a pearlware plate in bluish tint that reads, “Come drink.”

“I’m not looking for [china for] myself anymore,” Wesley promises…then adds a thought. “Unless I found something that was amazing. Amazing!”